Various attempts have been made to provide therapeutic pads and massage devices with magnetic alternating polarities to increase blood flow and therefore accelerate healing of injured body parts. The technology is based on principles of electricity and magnetism set forth in Faraday's Law of Magnetic Induction and the Hall Effect. Basically, these principles establish the fact that charged particles experience a force acting upon them when they move through a magnetic field in a perpendicular direction. Since human blood is replete with ions and electrolytes, it is an ideal carrier of charged particles. A blood vessel exposed to a proper alignment of alternating magnetic fields could experience an induced voltage of sufficient strength to produce a mild alternating current which could generate enough heat to cause a widening of the blood vessel and thus an increase in blood flow.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,711 of Latzke, using a pad consisting of alternating stripes of North and South magnetic poles are unidirectional in pole orientation. Latzke '711 provides parallel stripe-shaped poles in a linear arrangement that do not exhibit therapeutic effects on blood vessels that are not extending substantially traversely thereto.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,532 of Baermann, using a pad consisting of either concentric rings or radial sectors with alternating polarities are provided. However, with respect to the concentric ring configuration of Baermann '532, the effective orientation for the concentric ring design is limited because of the assumption that all blood vessels will cross through the center of the device. The Baermann '532 device becomes progressively less effective as blood vessels are positioned away from the center until the device is non-effective at its peripheral outer ring, where a blood vessel will only traverse one pole with no increase in blood flow.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,692 of Ardizzone, using a flexible pad consisting of an active surface with permanent magnetic particles embedded therein with said magnetic particles forming individual contiguous magnetic North and South polarity zones of opposite polarity being oriented so that at least one blood vessel will be in contact with alternate polarity zones irrespective of where said blood vessel is located while said blood vessel traverses any portion of said flexible pad. Although Ardezzone '692 has overcome the limitations of Latzke's '711 and Baermann's '532 pad devices, all of said magnetic pads have a limitation of depth of magnetic field, speed of alternating polarity working to increase the blood flow, and have to be applied to the skin.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,159 of Masatsugu Anzai, Fukuoka; Takeo Imoto, Settsu, both of Japan, using a massage apparatus consisting of at least two balls which are provided with a number of projections on the outer periphery thereof and a case for enclosing and retaining the balls in rotatable state and in attachable detachable manner. Further, when a ball or balls having magnetism qualifies, are used, in addition to the general effect due to the magnetism, an advantage that blood circulation is effectively enhanced due to an alternating magnetic field can be obtained by rolling the magnetic balls across the skin.
The advantage of the present invention is that it takes into account all the random positions of the blood vessels relative to the location of the device with the addition of increased depth of magnetic field through all the soft tissue, muscle tissue, and dense bone tissue. It works as well for a blood vessel traversing anywhere in the body within 18 to 24 inches of the device. Further, unlike the Anzai-Imoto '159, using magnetic balls to roll across the skin to create alternating magnetic fields, the present invention incorporates a motorized revolving wand that includes magnetic units aligned and spaced to obtain constantly alternating polarity at 90 degrees, plus or minus angles from the wand creating a general therapeutic effect of magnetism; operated by waving or holding the wand above or near the body tissue, not needing to touch or come in contact with the skin. Blood circulation is effectively enhanced due to said alternating magnetic polarity at a rapid and consistent rate, which therapeutically effect blood vessels, causing an increase of blood flow irrespective of the orientation of any blood vessel with respect to the magnetic wand, no matter how deep the blood vessels may be positioned in the body.